Colon Test Finds No Polyps; Bush Returns to Activities

By ELISABETH BUMILLER and LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

Published: June 30, 2002

WASHINGTON, June 29 — President Bush transferred the powers of the presidency to Vice President Dick Cheney for two hours and 15 minutes this morning while under heavy sedation during a colonoscopy at Camp David, the White House said.

Ari Fleischer, the White House press spokesman, said that no polyps or abnormalities were found in the president's colon in what was described as a routine 20-minute procedure.

White House officials said that Mr. Cheney was acting president from 7:09 to 9:24 a.m. He spent that time in a daily intelligence briefing and staff meetings in his office at the White House.

White House officials said Mr. Bush signed a letter a few minutes after 7 a.m. in the lounge area of the medical facility at Camp David invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to temporarily transfer his powers to Mr. Cheney.

They said that the amendment was officially invoked at 7:09 a.m., the same time that a short-acting sedative was injected into one of the president's veins. Mr. Bush fell asleep within 60 seconds, said Dr. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician.

Although some patients undergoing this treatment choose to have no medication or mild sedation, Dr. Tubb said that Mr. Bush had asked that he be asleep during the procedure.

The colonoscopy ended at 7:29 a.m. and the president awoke at 7:31 a.m., Mr. Fleischer said. After hitting a ball for his two dogs to chase and having some waffles at his cabin, Laurel Lodge, Mr. Bush signed a letter at 9:20 a.m. at the breakfast table resuming his powers.

But Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, said that Mr. Bush did not officially resume the powers of the presidency until 9:24 a.m. That was the time of the completed fax transmission of the letter to Mr. Cheney and the speaker of the House and the president pro tem of the Senate, as required by the Constitution.

Mr. Gonzales had driven the letter by golf cart from Laurel Lodge to another cabin at Camp David, where he himself faxed it to the vice president; the speaker, Representative J. Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois; and the president pro tem, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia.

Mr. Fleischer said that the president felt "great" after the procedure and that he had taken a four-and-a- half-mile walk later in the morning on the Camp David grounds with his wife, Laura; his brother Marvin; his chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr.; and Mr. Card's wife, the Rev. Kathleene Card. By 12:30 p.m., Mr. Fleischer said, the president was in the middle of a "light workout" in the Camp David gym.

Although the procedure lasted only 20 minutes, officials said that Mr. Bush decided to wait to resume the powers of the presidency until the effects of the sedation wore off. Dr. Tubb said that in recent months he had studied scientific reports about the chemical nature of the sedative Mr. Bush was given, propofol, and had talked to experts about at what time a patient would resume full command of mental ability.

In Mr. Bush's case, Dr. Tubb performed a neurological examination, including testing his knowledge of the day and time. In such an examination, doctors also typically ask patients who is the president of the United States, but White House physicians leave that one out.

The 25th Amendment was invoked only once before, on July 13, 1985, when President Ronald Reagan had surgery for colon cancer and transferred his powers to Mr. Bush's father, who was then vice president, for nearly eight hours.